Content delivery network service provider (CDNSP)-managed content delivery network (CDN) for network service provider (NSP)

ABSTRACT

A CDN service provider shares its CDN infrastructure with a network to enable a network service provider (NSP) to offer a private-labeled network content delivery network (NCDN or “private CDN”) to participating content providers. The CDNSP preferably provides the hardware, software and services required to build, deploy, operate and manage the CDN for the NCDN customer. Thus, the NCDN customer has access to and can make available to participating content providers one or more of the content delivery services (e.g., HTTP delivery, streaming media delivery, application delivery, and the like) available from the global CDN without having to provide the large capital investment, R&amp;D expense and labor necessary to successfully deploy and operate the network itself. Rather, the global CDN service provider simply operates the private CDN for the network as a managed service.

This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 11/636,849, filed Dec.11, 2006 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,376,727, which application was a divisionof Ser. No. 10/114,080, filed Apr. 2, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,149,797,which application was based on Ser. No. 60/280,953, filed Apr. 2, 2001.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to delivery of digital contentover a distributed network.

2. Description of the Related Art

It is well-known to deliver digital content (e.g., HTTP content,streaming media and applications) using an Internet content deliverynetwork (ICDN). A content delivery network or “CDN” is a network ofgeographically distributed content delivery nodes that are arranged forefficient delivery of content on behalf of third party contentproviders. A request from a requesting end user for given content isdirected to a “best” replica, where “best” usually means that the itemis served to the client quickly compared to the time it would take tofetch it from the content provider origin server.

Typically, a CDN is implemented as a combination of a content deliveryinfrastructure, a request-routing mechanism, and a distributioninfrastructure. The content delivery infrastructure usually comprises aset of “surrogate” origin servers that are located at strategiclocations (e.g., Internet network access points, Internet Points ofPresence, and the like) for delivering copies of content to requestingend users. The request-routing mechanism allocates servers in thecontent delivery infrastructure to requesting clients in a way that, forweb content delivery, minimizes a given client's response time and, forstreaming media delivery, provides for the highest quality. Thedistribution infrastructure consists of on-demand or push-basedmechanisms that move content from the origin server to the surrogates.In addition, the CDN infrastructure typically includes networkmonitoring systems to continuously monitor the state and health ofservers and the networks they are in, a network operations commandcenter (NOCC) that monitors the state of the network on a 24×7×365basis, a customer-facing extranet portal through which CDN customersobtain real-time and historical usage information and access to contentmanagement provisioning tools and the like, administrative and billingsystems, and other CDN infrastructure and support. Some CDN serviceproviders provide ancillary infrastructure and services such as highperformance, highly-available, persistent storage, tiered distributionthrough cache hierarchies, edge content assembly, content targeting, andthe like.

An effective CDN serves frequently accessed content from a surrogatethat is optimal for a given requesting client. In a typical CDN, asingle service provider operates the request-routers, the surrogates,and the content distributors. In addition, that service providerestablishes business relationships with content publishers and acts onbehalf of their origin server sites to provide a distributed deliverysystem. A well-known commercial CDN that provides web content, mediastreaming and application delivery is available from AkamaiTechnologies, Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.

Implementation, operation and management of a global distributednetwork—such as an Internet CDN—is a complex, costly and difficultendeavor. A large CDN may have thousands of servers operating inhundreds of disparate networks in numerous countries worldwide.Typically, the CDN service provider (a CDNSP) does not own physicalsupport infrastructure (i.e., networks, buildings, and the like) onwhich the CDN servers run, nor does the CDNSP necessarily have thecapability of administrating those servers that are often deployedthroughout the world. Rather, the service provider must deploy and thenremotely administer these services and applications as what is, ineffect, a virtual network overlaid on the existing (often third partyowned and controlled) physical networks and data centers.

Many network service providers desire to provide content deliveryservices, however, the cost of designing, installing, managing andoperating a full end-to-end CDN is prohibitive.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, a CDN service provider shares itsCDN infrastructure with a network to enable a network service provider(NSP) to offer a private-labeled network content delivery network (NCDNor “private CDN”) to participating content providers. The CDNSPpreferably provides the hardware, software and services required tobuild, deploy, operate and manage the CDN for the NCDN customer. Thus,the NCDN customer has access to and can make available to participatingcontent providers one or more of the content delivery services (e.g.,HTTP delivery, streaming media delivery, application delivery, and thelike) available from the global CDN without having to provide the largecapital investment, R&D expense and labor necessary to successfullydeploy and operate the network itself. Rather, the global CDN serviceprovider simply operates the private CDN for the network as a managedservice.

The CDNSP provides its NCDN customer with content delivery service forthe NCDN's participating content providers in a so-called “on-net”manner, meaning that the content that is actually available to bedelivered over the CDN is transported on the NSP's own network. When theNSP's private CDN is over-loaded, however, according to the inventionthe CDN service provider allows the NCDN to overflow onto the global CDNso that end users can still obtain the desired content in an efficientmanner. When traffic is overflowed to and delivered over the global CDN,it is said to be “off-net.” Thus, according to the present invention,one or more private CDNs share infrastructure of a larger CDN, whichmanages the private CDNs and makes its potentially global networkavailable to handle off-net overflow traffic.

In a conventional content delivery network implementation, the CDNservice provider may already have its content servers located “on-net,”i.e., in the NSP's network, which simplifies the provisioning of theprivate CDN. Typically, the CDN service provider has purchased bandwidth(transmission capacity) from the NSP to enable the CDNSP to providedelivery over the network (for the CDN's participating contentproviders). A typical CDN has business relationships with numerousnetworks, each of which provide bandwidth (for a fee or otherwise) tothe CDN. According to another aspect of the present invention, the CDNservice provider aggregates into an “off-net” bandwidth pool thebandwidth that is available to it from one or more of the NSPs that havedeployed NCDNs and its other network partners. This enables the variousNSPs (and, if desired, other networks) to exchange network capacity. Agiven NSP may sell its bandwidth into the pool for given consideration.The bandwidth pool is then made available to the NSPs so that a givenNSP can purchase given off-net bandwidth for overflow and/or otherpurpose. In one embodiment, the CDNSP makes the bandwidth pool availablein various tranches, e.g., a “partner” tranche (where off-net traffic isdelivered over a given NSP's network), a “domestic” tranche (whereoff-net traffic is delivered on given domestic networks), an“international” tranche (where off-net traffic is delivered on giveninternational networks), and the like. Different tranches may havedifferent pricing and other contractual arrangements. By managingprivate CDNs for given NSPs, the CDN may facilitate content peeringarrangements. In addition, the CDN service provider may operate anautomated (e.g., online) bandwidth exchange wherein a participating NSPcan post a price for their bandwidth and have other NSPs buy capacity,e.g., either on a Committed Information Rate (CIR) or overflow basis.

In a representative embodiment, a content delivery network serviceprovider shares its infrastructure to enable network service providersto offer CDN services to participating content providers. One or moreprivate CDNs are deployed, operated, and managed by the CDNSP on behalfof one or more respective network partners. The CDN service provider ispaid to deploy, operate and manage the private CDN on behalf of the NSP.In addition, preferably the CDN service is paid by the network todeliver the network's off-net traffic to peers or to a bandwidth pool.

The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent features of thepresent invention. These features should be construed to be merelyillustrative. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applyingthe disclosed invention in a different manner or by modifying theinvention as will be described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a known content delivery network in which thepresent invention may be implemented;

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a CDN server;

FIG. 3 is simplified diagram of a streaming media overlay network;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the basic CDN infrastructure services thatare made available to the NSP according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a simplified illustration of how a CDNSP provides a managedCDN on behalf of a network service provider (NSP) according to thepresent invention; and

FIG. 6 illustrates how NCDNs are implemented using naming schemes thatdiffer from the CDN; and

FIG. 7 illustrates a representative mapping mechanism to enable NCDNs tooverflow onto the global CDN.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As seen in FIG. 1, a known Internet content delivery infrastructureusually comprises a set of “surrogate” origin servers 102 that arelocated at strategic locations (e.g., Internet network access points,and the like) for delivering copies of content to requesting end users119. A surrogate origin server is defined, for example, in IETF InternetDraft titled “Requirements for Surrogates in the HTTP” dated Aug. 9,2000. The request-routing mechanism 104 allocates servers 102 in thecontent delivery infrastructure to requesting clients in a way that, forweb content delivery, minimizes a given client's response time and, forstreaming media delivery, provides for the highest quality. Thedistribution infrastructure consists of on-demand or push-basedmechanisms that move content from the origin server to the surrogates. ACDN service provider (CDNSP) may organize sets of surrogate originservers as a “region.” In this type of arrangement, a CDN region 106typically comprises a set of one or more content servers that share acommon backend, e.g., a LAN, and that are located at or near an Internetaccess point. Thus, for example, a typical CDN region may be co-locatedwithin an Internet Service Provider (ISP) Point of Presence (PoP) 108. Arepresentative CDN content server is a Pentium-based caching appliancerunning an operating system (e.g., Linux, Windows NT, Windows 2000) andhaving suitable RAM and disk storage for CDN applications and contentdelivery network content (e.g., HTTP content, streaming media andapplications). Such content servers are sometimes referred to as “edge”servers as they are located at or near the so-called outer reach or“edges” of the Internet. The CDN typically also includes network agents109 that monitor the network as well as the server loads. These networkagents are typically co-located at third party data centers or otherlocations. Map maker software 107 receives data generated from thenetwork agents and periodically creates maps that dynamically associateIP addresses (e.g., the IP addresses of client-side local name servers)with the CDN regions.

In one service offering, available commercially from AkamaiTechnologies, Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., content is tagged for deliveryfrom the CDN using a content migration or rewrite tool 106 operated, forexample, at a participating content provider server. Tool 106 rewritesembedded object URLs to point to the CDNSP domain. A request for taggedcontent is resolved through a CDNSP-managed DNS to identify a “best”region, and then to identify an edge server within the region that isnot overloaded and that is likely to host the requested content. Insteadof using content provider-side migration (e.g., using the tool 106), aparticipating content provider may simply direct the CDNSP to serve anentire domain (or subdomain) by a DNS directive (e.g., a CNAME). In suchcase, the CDNSP may provide object-specific metadata to the CDN contentservers to determine how the CDN content servers will handle a requestfor an object being served by the CDN. Metadata refers to a set ofcontrol options and parameters for the object (e.g., coherenceinformation, origin server identity information, load balancinginformation, customer code, other control codes, etc.), and suchinformation may be provided to the CDN content servers in various ways.In one approach, the CDNSP operates a metadata transmission system 116comprising a set of one or more servers to enable metadata to beprovided to the CDNSP content servers. The system 116 may comprise atleast one control server 118, and one or more staging servers 120 a-n,each of which is typically an HTTP server (e.g., Apache). Metadata isprovided to the control server 118 by the CDNSP or the content provider(e.g., using a secure extranet application) and periodically deliveredto the staging servers 120 a-n. The staging servers deliver the metadatato the CDN content servers as necessary.

FIG. 2 illustrates a typical machine configuration for a CDN contentedge server. For HTTP content, the content server 200 is a cachingappliance running an operating system kernel 202, a file system cache204, CDN software 206, TCP connection manager 208, and disk storage 210.CDN software 206, among other things, is used to create and manage a“hot” object cache 212 for popular objects being served by the CDN. Inoperation, the content server 200 receives end user requests forcontent, determines whether the requested object is present in the hotobject cache or the disk storage, serves the requested object via HTTP(if it is present) or establishes a connection to another content serveror an origin server to attempt to retrieve the requested object upon acache miss.

As described above, the Internet CDN may also provide live and on-demandstreaming media. In one approach, the CDN incorporates a fan-outtechnique that allows the data comprising a given stream to be sent onmultiple redundant paths when required to enable a given edge server toconstruct a clean copy of the stream when some of the paths are down orlossy. FIG. 3 illustrates the use of a so-called “reflector” transportnetwork that implements such a process. This network is described inU.S. Pat. No. 6,751,673, titled “Streaming media subscription mechanismfor a content delivery network.”

As seen in FIG. 3, a broadcast stream 300 is sent to a CDN entry point302. An entry point, for example, comprises two servers (forredundancy), and each server can handle many streams from multiplecontent providers. Once the entry point receives the stream, itrebroadcasts copies of the stream to set reflectors 304 a-n. The streamsare multiplexed and delivered to the set reflectors preferably via UDP(e.g., WMT encapsulated in RTSP encapsulated in UDP over IP). These setreflectors are preferably diverse from a network and geographicstandpoint (e.g., at diverse Internet backbone data centers) to ensurefault tolerance. Each set reflector, in turn, rebroadcasts its copy ofthe stream to each subscribing region, e.g., region 306 d, of a set ofregions 306 a-n. A subscribing region 306 d is a CDN region thatcontains one or more streaming edge nodes 308 a-n to which user(s) havebeen routed by the CDN request-routing mechanism. In other words, setreflectors send their streams to every edge region where they areneeded. A CDN region, in this example, includes a set of edge nodesconnected by a common backbone 309, e.g., a local area network (LAN).Typically, an edge node, e.g., node 308 d, comprises a streaming server312 and it may include a cache 310. A representative server runs anIntel processor, the Linux operating system and a Real Media orQuickTime Server. For Windows-based platforms, a representative serverruns an Intel processor, Windows NT or 2000, and a Windows Media Server.As will be described, the edge node also runs control programs 314 tofacilitate the subscription mechanism as described in theabove-identified application.

Although not shown in detail, a typical content delivery networkincludes other infrastructure (servers, control facilities,applications, and the like) in addition to the HTTP and streamingdelivery networks described above. Such infrastructure provides for anintegrated suite of services and functions as set forth in the CDN“building block” diagram illustrated in FIG. 4. These services andfunction are representative, of course, and a given CDN need not includeall of them or be implemented according to the configurations describedabove and illustrated in FIGS. 1-3. For purposes of the presentinvention, it is assumed that a content delivery network operates adistributed infrastructure on behalf of its participating contentprovider customers, typically leveraging the networks of various thirdparty network service providers. Thus, for example, it is assumed thatthe CDN operates servers in various large (e.g., backbone) networks suchas those owned and operated by such companies as: UUNet, AT&T, QwestCommunications, Cable & Wireless, Sprint, British Telecom, DeutscheTelecom, NTT, and the like. It is also assumed that a given NSP desiresto offer content delivery to its own participating content providers(which, typically, will not be the same content providers that use theservices of the global CDN).

According to the present invention, and as illustrated in FIG. 5, theglobal CDN 500 shares its infrastructure with one or more NSPs 502 a-nto enable each NSP to provide its participating content providers with aso-called “private CDN” 504. As illustrated, a given private CDN (ornetwork content delivery network (“NCDN”) preferably uses the CDNservers provisioned in the network 506. Participating content providers508 a-n migrate their content to the NCDN using tools, techniques orinstructions provided or facilitated by the CDNSP, and the CDNSPdeploys, operates and manages the NCDN on behalf of the NSP partner.Participating content providers 508 have their content made availablefrom the private CDN (instead of from their origin servers), thusproviding an enhanced end user experience and flash crowd protection forparticipating content provider web sites. Generalizing, the ContentDelivery Network for Network Service Providers (NCDN) is a CDNSP-managedservice that offers network service providers (NSPs) a turnkey contentdelivery network (CDN). The CDNSP preferably provides the hardware andsoftware services required to build, deploy and manage a CDN for theNCDN customer. The NCDN customer is provided with their own fullybranded CDN that has similar core functional capabilities for HTTPobject and streaming delivery as does the CDNSP CDN. In particular, theCDNSP preferably provides to the NCDN customer (i.e., the NSP) thefunctional CDN capabilities illustrated, for example, in FIG. 4. Thesefunctional components are offered as an integrated solution for the NCDNcustomer to bring its own content delivery services to market.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the CDNSP typically operates its set ofcontent servers under a global CDN namespace 600, e.g., cdnsp.net. Whenan end user browser makes a name query against that domain, the CDNrequest routing mechanism returns the IP address of a CDN edge serverthat is not overloaded and that is likely to host the desired content. Arepresentative technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,703, whichis incorporated herein by reference. Network Service Providers (NSPs) inwhich they have their own separate namespaces 602 and 604 (e.g.,ncdn1.net and ncdn2.net instead of cdnsp.net) and, optionally, their ownbranding. Preferably, the NSP leases its equipment from the CDNSP, andthe NSP provides Tier 1 customer support to its own customers. Althoughnot a requirement, the NSP preferably does not have root access to itsCDN machines, but contracts for the CDNSP to provide CDNSP-ownedsoftware and to operate their NCDN. The NSP may have a virtual NetworkOperations Control Center (NOCC) that gives it the ability to monitortheir NCDN, but preferably all actual operating decisions are made bythe CDNSP.

The NCDN has many advantages. It enables the NSP to provide its contentprovider customers with flash-crowd protection, it enables the NSP todiminish traffic within its network, and it provides good performance.An NSP may offer content delivery to its content provider customers at alower cost than a CDNSP's premium service, as well as other benefits,because many of the NSP's customers may already be hosting their websites with the NSP. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the NSP may rely on theCDNSP to handle overflow using the CDNSP's global network whenever theNSP's own smaller network cannot handle the load. Preferably, the CDNSPnetwork does not overflow into the NSP's NCDN, and one NCDN will not beallowed to overflow into another NCDN. The CDNSP preferably invoices theNSP on a periodic basis, e.g., a monthly service charge, for operatingthe NCDN, and that fee may be based on the size of deployment, trafficserved, or some other metric. In addition, CDNSP may charge the NSP foroverflowing into the CDNSP network according to a fee structure, e.g., astructure that encourages the NSP to deploy more servers rather than touse CDNSP bandwidth.

As noted above, preferably the NCDN uses shared CDN infrastructure.Thus, auxiliary NCDN services, such as data aggregation, collection, logdelivery, content management, customer portal services, and the like,use the CDNSP tools, machines, systems and processes. Some or all of thecustomer-facing services, however, may be labeled with the NSP'sbranding, rather than with the CDNSP's. Billing data for the NSPcustomers is provided by the CDNSP to the NSP in any convenient format,although preferably via an XML-formatted file transfer mechanism. Toaccount for charges due to NCDN overflow to the CDNSP, the CDNSP billingdatabase may include appropriate fields to identify the NSP's customerfor the hit and whether the NSP or the CDNSP served the content. In oneembodiment, the hostname portion of an embedded object URL (e.g.,ncdn1.net, ncdn2.net, cdnsp.net, or the like) is logged by CDN contentserver to enable these fields to be populated by billing software. Inaddition, log-based alerts may warn when an NCDN customer has erred inmigrating its content to the CDN, which might cause an NSP customer touse the CDNSP network improperly or one NSP's customer to use adifferent NSP's NCDN network.

By sharing the CDN infrastructure, the NCDN preferably uses thestreaming network and, thus, the NSP also provides live andvideo-on-demand (VOD) streaming, perhaps in multiple formats such Real,Windows Media, and QuickTime. The NSP's preferably have at least several(e.g., three) entry points within their network for redundancy. Livestreaming events preferably are managed (and charged for) by the CDNSPsubject to CDNSP approval. Preferably, overflow is handled by the CDNSPnetwork via a reflector subscription mechanism, such as the mechanismdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,673. In an illustrated embodiment, alimit is placed on the number of CDNSP servers on which the NCDN canoverflow so that no load underestimation by the NSP can adversely impactthe CDNSP's network. To handle VOD storage needs, the NSP may use itsown storage network or, alternatively, the CDNSP's storage solution. Anillustrated storage solution implemented within a content deliverynetwork infrastructure may be the technique described in U.S. Pat. No.7,340,505, titled “Content storage and replication in a managed Internetcontent storage environment.”

As noted above, other CDN infrastructure support is provided to the NSP.Thus, for example, delivery over SSL may be provided using a generic SSLsolution based on wildcard certificates and the Key ManagementInfrastructure. Service Level Agreement (SLA) monitoring for NCDNcontent delivery service may be implemented using, for example,redundant monitoring agents (a pair of servers in nearby datacenters)download test images from both the NSP's customer and the NSP's NCDNnetwork. The minimum time for corresponding downloads from the twoservers may then be used to determine whether the SLA conditions havebeen met. The CDNSP preferably monitors both the SLA from the CDNSP tothe NSP, as well as from the NSP to its customers. The NSP-customer SLAmay be modeled after the existing CDNSP-customer SLA. In one embodiment,the CDNSP-NSP SLA offers a given uptime guarantee, perhaps rebating anyfees for the duration of any delivery outage. An NSP's virtual NOCCpreferably provides simplified information on the status of each of theNCDN servers. It may have status windows to show machines that need tobe fixed, overflow status, and the like. Detailed information preferablyis displayed in the CNDSP NOCC. Preferably, the virtual NOCC does nothave control of the NCDN software. The NSP's customers preferably accessthe CDNSP's customer portal (preferably a secure extranet application)for real-time reporting and historical data. Secure connections to theportal are made, for example, via an NCDN-branded domain, either bysetting up separate portal machines or allocating additional IPaddresses on existing portal machines.

Several different techniques may be used to “map” requests for NCDNcontent to the NCDN. In a first approach, referred to as overlay NCDN,the NSP does not have dedicated regions or machines. In this example,the NSP's content providers are just identifiable with separate mappingrules so that requests are simply mapped to a set of machines that servethe content and other non-NCDN content.

A second embodiment is sometimes referred to as an independent NCDNwithout overflow. In this embodiment, the NSP has a set of dedicatedmachines organized into regions, with each region being a set of CDNcontent servers sharing a back-end switch. These regions preferably areonly used to deliver content of a specific service for private CDNrequests. This type of solution may be over-provisioned to handle NCDNtraffic spikes, and any overflow control mechanism in the CDN ismodified to prevent overflow between the CDN and the NCDN.

In a preferred embodiment, however, an independent NCDN has overflowcapability. In this embodiment illustrated in FIG. 7, the NSP also has aseparate set of one or more regions 700 a-n, each of which includecontent servers 704 dedicated to the NCDN. This embodiment, however,also uses an overflow controller 706. In a representativeimplementation, the overflow controller 706 is a mechanism foroverriding the assignment of clients to regions generated by a CDNmapping process 708. In particular, it is assumed that the CDN mappingprocess has the capability of assigning clients (typically, an enduser's local name server) to CDN regions, each of which comprise a setof one or more content servers. The overflow controller 706 modifiesthese assignments under certain conditions. Thus, for example, when aregion is receiving more than a given % of the load that it is deemed tobe capable of serving (e.g., 75%), the overflow controller begins tospill traffic to other regions. Preferably, the overflow controlleraccomplishes this by instructing an individual low-level nameserver thatis directing traffic into the region to begin directing traffic toanother region. The low-level nameserver then joins a load-balancinggroup for the new region. If necessary, the overflow controller directsmore than one low-level nameserver to direct traffic to another region,and different low-level nameservers may point to different regions. Theoverflow controller may comprise a group of machines, located ondifferent backbones, each running the overflow controller process. Thesemachines elect a leader, called the lead overflow controller, who isresponsible for determining if any low-level nameservers should beredirected. The lead overflow controller determines which low-levelnameservers should be redirected, and to where, e.g., by performing aminimum-cost flow calculation. The nodes in the graph are CDN regions.

Thus, in a preferred embodiment, separate maprules are used to causeoverflow within an NCDN to favor the NCDN servers over CDNSP servers. Amaprule is a set of rules for a type of content defining which CDNSPregion (a subset of CDNSP servers that typically share a commonbackbone, such as a LAN, in a datacenter) may serve it. A mapruledefines which regions should be used for a certain service and definesoverflow preferences. In a simpler embodiment as noted above, an NCDNsimply serves the NSP's customers out of the CDNSP network. As NCDNregions are added within the NSP's network, they are added to the CDNSPnetwork as ordinary CDNSP regions. NCDN regions would then beprioritized over CDNSP regions using a maprule, but overflow from anNCDN region preferably is not prioritized to within the NCDN's otherregions. In the preferred embodiment, as noted above, the NCDN ispartitioned from the CDNSP network, and overflow is prioritized towithin the NCDN.

The following describes additional details for an illustrativeimplementation.

Mapping and Load Balancing

It is required to determine proper maps for each NCDN and to use thesemaps to make load-balancing decisions. Because the ability of the NCDNto overflow into the CDNSP network when needed is an advantage of theNCDN product/service, an audit trail is preferably provided to justifyany overflow into the CDNSP's network. In one embodiment, the NCDN usesa simple maprule that preferentially serves customers from the NCDNregions but which does not prioritize the NCDN regions during overflow.The CDNSP preferably includes a mapping mechanism that monitors theInternet and maps based on dynamic conditions. The mapping mechanism mayuse monitoring agents, such as servers that perform network traffictests including traceroutes, pings, file downloads, and the like, tomeasure dynamic network conditions. Such data may then be used to assesswhich CDNSP regions are best, in terms of Quality of Service (QoS)performance, to serve content for each (NsIP, MapRule), where NsIP isthe IP address of a requesting client's name server and the MapRule is aset of rules for a type of content defining which region may serve it.These maprules preferably encode the fact that content should bepreferentially served from the NCDN regions. Preferably, the mappingmechanism is able to generate candidate regions (best data centers fordelivering content) in the NCDN for each client name server (or group ofname servers) so that a given scoring routine (based on some Q-o-Scriteria) can provide sufficiently many scores within the NCDN for eachgroup of client name servers, and so that, in turn, a region assignmentcan be made to map end users of NCDN content to an appropriate region.The particular algorithms and techniques for performing the actualregion assignment are not part of the present invention. As the CDNSPdeploys more NCDNs, it should ensure that the set of candidate regionsfor a specific client name server over all maprules does not grow toolarge, because otherwise too much network traffic testing may occurand/or become unwieldy.

Content Migration and Content Servers

Content providers served by an NCDN may utilize one or more contentmigration tools or other techniques to migrate content provider (CP)content to the NCDN. Preferably, each content provider is assigned adistinct CP-code from all other CP-codes using the same NCDN, anotherNCDN, or the CDNSP. A table may be used to provide the mapping fromCP-code to legal domains on the content provider's origin server.Distribution of the legal domains to the CDNSP content servers may beprovided by a metadata transmission system.

A CDNSP's content servers preferably are used for the NCDN. Aconventional content server is a Pentium-based caching application witha large amount of RAM and disk storage.

For collecting data from CDNSP content server regarding the contentserved, preferably the CDNSP uses a log delivery service that logs hostheaders.

Distributed Data Collection

The CDNSP's billing of the NCDN may include a preference to prescribe alarge bursting rate in the case of an overflow condition, whereby theNCDN (due to network traffic congestion) is permitted to serve contentfrom the CDNSP network. The overflow degree is the difference betweenthe traffic served by the NCDN's content servers and the total trafficserved by the CDNSP's network for the particular NCDN's CP codes. Directmeasurement of the overflow degree is highly desirable from an auditingperspective (both in reviewing billing and accidental misapplication ofthe content migration process by the NCDN's customer). Directmeasurement may be accomplished by including an additional field in alog database application to collect host header names, which allows theCDNSP to use existing SQL queries to collate this data. Unique IDs maybe assigned during the provisioning process of each NCDN. The new fieldsin the log database may be used, for example, to indicate what NCDN wasnamed in the rebranded portion of the URL and to show out of whatnetwork the content was served.

Logging and Billing

A log database changes can be generated as follows: parse additionalfields in logs, map modified URL hostname into NCDN code, map contentserver IP to NCDN code, and automate delivery into a distributed datacollection (DDC) function. In addition to logging this data for the hostheader name, logging may raise alerts when an overflow condition exists.

For the NCDN's billing of their customers, a reseller approach may beutilized. For example, the CDNSP delivers to the NCDN on a monthly basisan XML file containing summarized traffic information for each of theirCP-codes. The NCDN is then responsible for filtering this data andgenerating branded invoices for their customers.

Streaming

A reflector network as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,673 may beprovided for each NCDN. This network preferably comprises 3 distributiontrees (to provide fault tolerance and redundancy), with at least 3 entrypoints. To support the requirement for the NCDN to be able to overflowonto the CDNSP network, the NCDN reflector network may be rate limitedand will be mapped to overflow into no more than a small percentage ofthe CDNSP network. This restriction minimizes the impact on the CDNSPreflector network that would occur if the NCDN took on more load thanboth networks could handle.

Storage

Preferably, the NCDN uses the NSP's existing storage solution. NSP'spreferably obtain storage in several ways, e.g.: NSPs that host websites can provide storage “behind” the customer web site, and NSPs canprovide storage servers “in front” of the customer web site to which thecustomer uploads content. For storage “behind” the web site, thecustomer web server accesses the storage directly. For storage “infront” of website, the CDNSP may require the NSP to use a CDNSP globalload balancing mechanism service such as described in U.S. Ser. No.10/113,183, identified above. This mechanism provides an IP-based accesscontrol for the NCDN storage customers. During provisioning of the NCDN,an appropriate CDNSP DNS entry for the NSP's storage servers isprovided. Once this has been done, the NCDN can CNAME its customer nameson their nameserver to the CDNSP DNS entry. Preferably, the NCDN isresponsible for managing issues with their customer's uploads into thestorage sites. This solution provides a level of anonymity to thestorage servers and branding of the storage servers with the NSP'sdomain and customer names without any software modifications.

Performance Assurance and Agents

A basic approach to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) will be the use oftwo types of SLA's: Type 1—the SLA between the NSP and its customers(e.g., one for web content delivery, one for streaming media contentdelivery); Type 2—The SLA between the CDNSP and the NSP (e.g., one forweb content delivery, one for streaming media content delivery).

Preferably, the CDNSP monitors the NCDN, alerts the NSP of any problems,and assists the NSP in developing a monitoring and alert policy with itscustomers.

NOCC Monitoring Applications

The monitoring of the NCDN by the CDNSP NOCC may provide region-levelmonitoring and region overflow monitoring. For region-level monitoring,the NOCC operating data is monitored, aggregated and used to updaterelevant NOCC GUI displays. The NOCC may assign the same or differentpriorities on NCDN and CDNSP alerts. There may also be a generalprioritization of the form “CDNSP network is more important than anyCDN” (or vice versa). There may be various types of alerts for NCDNoperation including, e.g.: NCDN has only N % machines serving; NCDN isoverflowing N % of traffic to CDNSP; NCDN not visible to NOCC (whichwill happen if there is a peering problem with the network), or thelike. Of course, the above examples are merely representative. Anindication whether the NCDN is overflowing into a CDNSP region may beprovided.

NSP Virtual NOCC Applications

Preferably, the CDNSP limits the amount (and type) of data viewable bythe NSP, although this is not a requirement. The data presented to theNSP's virtual NOCC may be the following: an “indicator” showing whethera particular server on the NCDN network is operational ornon-operational and, by region, traffic served in megabits per secondand hits per second. The definition of operational machines preferablyincludes suspended machines, and the only machines considerednon-operational are those with hardware or connectivity problems.

Reporting

The CDNSP's realtime and historical data modules may be used.Preferably, logs are aggregated by the NCDN CP-codes and delivered tothe NSP. The NSP is then responsible for filtering this data andproviding it to the NCDN customers (i.e., participating contentproviders).

Thus, according to the present invention, a content delivery networkshares its infrastructure by building and managing private contentdelivery (sub)-networks (an NCDN) for one or more network serviceproviders (or other third parties). Although part of a sharedinfrastructure, each NCDN preferably comprises at least one private CDNregion that is separate from the CDN regions that comprise thepotentially global CDN. These private regions can share the same datacenters and racks as some of the CDN regions but preferably haveseparate backend networks and may be tracked in the CDN systemseparately. This separation makes it possible to prevent off-netoverflow from CDN regions, if desired. It might also be possible foroff-net traffic to overflow into private CDN regions if the CDNSPchooses.

Sharing CDN infrastructure provides additional advantages to the CDNservice provider. Typically, the CDN service provider has purchasedbandwidth (transmission capacity) from the NSP to enable the CDNSP toprovide delivery over the network (for the CDN's participating contentproviders). A typical CDN has business relationships with numerousnetworks, each of which provide bandwidth (for a fee or otherwise) tothe CDN. According to another aspect of the present invention, the CDNservice provider aggregates into an “off-net” bandwidth pool thebandwidth that is available to it from one or more of the NSPs that havedeployed NCDNs and its other network partners. This enables the variousNSPs (and, if desired, other networks) to exchange network capacity. Agiven NSP may sell its bandwidth into the pool for given consideration.The bandwidth pool is then made available to the NSPs so that a givenNSP can purchase given off-net bandwidth for overflow and/or otherpurpose. In one embodiment, the CDNSP makes the bandwidth pool availablein various tranches, e.g., a “partner” tranche (where off-net traffic isdelivered over a given NSP's network), a “domestic” tranche (whereoff-net traffic is delivered on given domestic networks), an“international” tranche (where off-net traffic is delivered on giveninternational networks), and the like. Different tranches may havedifferent pricing and other contractual arrangements. By managingprivate CDNs for given NSPs, the CDN may facilitate content peeringarrangements. In addition, the CDN service provider may operate anautomated (e.g., online) bandwidth exchange wherein a participating NSPcan post a price for their bandwidth and have other NSPs buy capacity,e.g., either on a Committed Information Rate (CIR) or overflow basis.

The following is a more concrete example of a representative bandwidthpooling exchange as contemplated by the present invention. In thisexample, the CDNSP offers the following options to its NSP customersthat have bought an NCDN. As noted above, an NCDN is a private CDN basedon the CDN infrastructure (in whole or in part) to otherwise sharing acommon interface with the CDN of the CDNSP. If the NSP wishes to deliversome content from “off-net” servers, i.e., using servers on the globalCDN of the CDNSP, the NSP pays the CDNSP given agreed-uponconsideration. The rate paid, for example, may be based on the rate foranother NSP where the particular servers in question are located. TheCDNSP then aggregates groups of NSPs (aggregating across all or somenetworks where the CDNSP's servers are located) and offers “tranches” ofNSP pricing. Thus, for example:

1. $350/Mbps for UUNET bandwidth

2. $300/Mbps for any NSP in which CDNSP servers are co-located

3. $400/Mbps for domestic Tier 1 NSPs

4. $500/Mbps for cable company NSPs

5. $700/Mbps for European telco NSPs

6. etc.

Of course, the above amounts and classifications are merelyrepresentative, as the CDNSP can designate any number of classificationsand pricing variables as it desires.

To facilitate a bandwidth exchange, the CDNSP can offer a particular NSPNCDN customer reduced “off-net” bandwidth prices in exchange for cheaperbandwidth on the network of that NSP (which would then be resold toother NSP NCDN customers of the CDNSP). If the NSP customer offered toothers enough “on-net” bandwidth, the NSP could, in theory, buy its“off-net” cost down to zero (or even be paid). Thus, a true CDNbandwidth exchange would be provided, with buyers and sellers ofbandwidth, and the CDNSP getting a “spread” between buy and sell rates.The bid-ask prices for bandwidth on each participating NSP preferablyare posted by the CDNSP over an online system, e.g., through web-basedaccess through the CDNSP extranet portal.

The present invention may be implemented in any content deliverynetwork. As noted above, preferably, the CDN includes mapping and loadbalancing software that uses dynamic monitoring of the system status(load, connectivity, etc.) and Internet conditions to direct end users(primarily via DNS) to an optimal region and then an optimal server inthat region. In general, any request can be sent to any region, and theedge servers dynamically fetch content, run applications, and serveend-user requests. Additionally, the CDN may run several overlaynetworks to provide efficient and scalable communications betweencustomers' web sites and the large CDN edge network. Some of theseoverlay networks are dynamically constructed of the edge regionsthemselves, while others may use specialized non-edge regions (e.g., thestreaming fan-out network). A variety of side channels (e.g., themetadata transmission system) may also exist to efficiently deliverconfiguration and other data to the edge servers as well as to collectsystem state data for real-time monitoring and other functions. This CDNinfrastructure is shared by a number of network service provider (NSP)partners, who each operate a private CDN for their participating contentprovider customers.

1. A method of content delivery in a content delivery network (CDN), theCDN deployed, operated and managed by a content delivery network serviceprovider (CDNSP) and comprising a set of content servers and a domainname system (DNS) associated with a CDN namespace, comprising:establishing a private content delivery network within a portion of theCDN, the private content delivery network associated with a entitydistinct from the CDNSP and comprising a subset of the content serversoperated by the CDNSP, the private content delivery network furtherincluding a private CDN namespace associated therewith that is a subsetof the CDN namespace, where the private content delivery network enablesthe entity to provide content delivery to participating contentproviders associated with the entity without requiring the entity todeploy, operate and manage content servers; providing the participatingcontent providers associated with the entity on-net content deliveryover the private content delivery network; providing the participatingcontent providers associated with the entity off-net content deliveryover the CDN on an as-needed basis; wherein the CDNSP manages contentserver data collection for the private content delivery network; whereinthe CDNSP manages billing for the private content delivery network;wherein the CDNSP manages a network operations center (NOC) for theprivate content delivery network; and wherein the CDNSP manages contentstorage for the private content delivery network.
 2. The method asdescribed in claim 1 where the off-net content delivery is provided whenload on the private content delivery network exceeds a threshold.
 3. Themethod as described in claim 1 where the entity provides the CDNSPconsideration for content delivered over the private content deliverynetwork.
 4. The method as described in claim 1 where the entity obtainsa benefit from the CDNSP.
 5. The method as described in claim 4 whereinthe benefit is a reduction in a rate paid by the entity for off-netcontent delivery.
 6. The method as described in claim 5 wherein thereduction is provided in exchange for the entity reducing a rate chargedto the CDNSP for bandwidth on a network associated with the entity.